The Art of Application Performance Testing

Author: Ian Molyneaux
Publisher: O'Reilly
Pages: 160
ISBN: 978-0596520663
Aimed at: Testing beginners
Rating: 3
Pros: A reasonable overview
Cons: Very short and very hands-off
Reviewed by: Mike James

This is a book that talks about Application Performance testing rather than telling you how to do it. While there is lots of advice on the desirable properties of testing tools none are discussed in detail and this is certainly not a practical primer.

Chapter One starts off with the question that we all probably know the answer to - "Why performance test?". Chapter Two goes on to consider the fundamentals of effective performance testing some of which is fairly common sense  - get a code freeze, provide sufficient test data, allocate enough time etc. Chapter Three discusses the process of performance testing by way of two case studies.

Chapter Five outlines the problem of interpreting the results of performance testing with the aim of tracking down the root cause. This is a welcome discussion of a very general problem. The problem is so general however that you can't expect simple ready made solutions. In this case it is vital that the tester understands the system architecture. The final chapter is on the way individual technologies affect performance testing - Ajax, Citrix , HTTP, Java, Oracle, SAP and OSA. Each section is very short and most don't say anything really helpful beyond the fact that the technology exists with its basic characteristic.

This is very much a "hands off" approach to the subject and it might help you think about the overall problem of organising and starting application performance testing. The one really good piece of advice in the book is "start performance testing early - ridiculously early if possible".

Only buy this book if you are a beginner at performance testing or want to explain to management the sorts of things you should be doing. This very short book doesn't cover much ground.

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Facilitating Professional Scrum Teams (Pearson)

Author: Patricia Kong, Glaudia Califano and David Spinks
Publisher: Pearson
Pages: 320
ISBN: 978-0138196141
Print: 0138196141
Kindle: B0CLKZC5JM
Audience: Scrum managers
Rating: 5
Reviewer: Kay Ewbank

This book sets out to "Improvement, Effectiveness and Outcomes". How does it fa [ ... ]



T-SQL Fundamentals (Microsoft Press)

Author: Itzik Ben-Gan
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Pages: 608
ISBN: 978-0138102104
Print: 0138102104
Kindle: B0BTLBXF8V
Audience: T-SQL developers
Rating: 5
Reviewer: Kay Ewbank

Itzik Ben-Gan is a highly respected Microsoft Data Platform MVP, and the earlier editions of this book were already ver [ ... ]


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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 28 April 2010 )